Did you know that at the beginning of this year, we partnered up with Avena Environmental for the secure destruction and recycling of workwear and PPE. This innovative solution for your end-of-life garments will assist your company by reducing your carbon emissions alongside your scope 3 targets whilst also protecting your intellectual property by implementing a solution for your end-of-life workwear, PPE, and many other products too!
In the past few years, there has been an explosion of sustainable workwear and PPE from items made with recycled bottles, longer-lasting garments and items sourced from sustainable sources such as bamboo, however, where the process falls short is ultimately at the products end-of-life and the question of “What happens to your items when they reach their end-of-life?”
The sustainable sourcing and creation of garments are rendered useless if at the end of its life cycle the garment is simply thrown into a landfill and left to rot. With over 85% of all textiles being sent to landfills, we were proud to partner with Avena Environmental group to introduce a solution to our customers whereby most of the products you purchase from us can be diverted from landfills and recycled and offers full circularity!
Current solutions
There are several solutions available currently for end-of-life textiles however, these solutions are not secure and sustainable.
Landfill/Charity
Many organisations simply bury their head in the sand and leave their end-of-life workwear/PPE in the hands of their employees whereby most individuals will simply place it into their bin (which will get sent to a landfill) or placed into a charity bin which will once again be sent to landfill or send abroad simply moving the problem overseas!
Textile rags
By breaking down the garments, textile rags are a low-cost solution whereby the items are destroyed, and “rags” are created for everyday use. Although this does indeed protect your brand, this however is only a short extension of the lifecycle and ultimately, the items will still end up in landfill!
However, neither of these options are sustainable options…
Why is the secure destruction and recycling of your end-of-life workwear & PPE so important?
With 100 billion garments being manufactured annually and less than 1% of these being recycled effectively, we understand the importance of implementing a sustainable solution for the destruction and recycling of textiles sooner rather than later. With the impacts of climate change being faced across the UK, everyone on an individual level and in large organisations needs to do their part and reduce their carbon emissions and work towards their scope 3 targets.
Alongside the positive environmental impacts, it is also important for companies to protect their intellectual property and have a process implemented to collect their end-of-life garments and ensure that these are not being sent to landfill.
Through Avena’s Zero Waste to Landfill approach, every tonne of textiles recycled saves 3.62 cubic meters of landfill space and 13500 kg of carbon into the atmosphere vs landfill or incineration.
What does your organisation do with their end-of-life workwear/PPE?
How does it get recycled with Avena?
All items returned to Avena will get recycled as part of their 100% zero-to-landfill policy. Depending on the composition of the items, they can be remanufactured into new items such as insulation, soundboards, or new garments!
Using their process, Avena Environmental takes all items and securely destroys them by a secure shredding process, rendering them unrecognizable from a t-shirt to a pair of trousers!
This protects your brand by removing any name/branding which may otherwise be seen in landfills or sent abroad….
Step 1 – Place an order with your account manager or on your online portal
Step 2 – Avena will deliver you your chosen unit
Step 3 – Place your garments into the secure containers
Step 4- Avena will collect on a scheduled collection Step 5 – Avena separates and recycles all your items
Alongside Avena’s uncomplicated process for recycling your items, they have an industry leading hierarchy whereby they can separate your items and segregate them into specific categories for increased recyclability rates.
Avena’s primary and preferred route is to re-use the material for future manufacturing of other garments, clothes & textiles via recycling. This is typically achieved when the materials recycled are of simple make up and able to be reproduced (Wool, Cotton, Tencil, etc).
Their secondary route is to recycle the materials for use in the world again via a range of various products. This includes end of life products such as insulation, geotextiles, partition walls and sound boarding. This ensures the materials are used again and recycled.
Finally, if the above two routes ae not possible for the material and it is currently non-recyclable, to ensure the service is a zero to landfill service, the material will be made into chips and melted to create polyester fabrics or used for energy (RDF). This full circular solution is the right step forward in dealing with the mountain of end-of-life textiles which is being sent to landfill.
For more information, please visit https://www.greenham.com/Product-Recycling
